Best Practice Guide

Food and Beverage Growers and Processors

Case Study

S. Martinelli and Company

Location: Watsonville, Santa Cruz County
Type: Food and Beverage Processing Facility (juice)
Size: 390,000 and 60,000
Built: 1968 and 1905

Company Website: http://www.martinellis.com

Company Information
Based in California's beautiful Pajaro Valley, near the Monterey Bay, S. Martinelli & Company has been producing apple juice since 1868. Thanks to continuing plant modernization, this family owned and operated company has been able to keep pace with market expansion and keep its foothold as the best-selling brand of apple juice made in the United States from 100 percent U.S.-grown fresh apples.

Aerial view of S. Martinelli & Company and the surrounding area in Santa Cruz County. Photo courtesy of S. Martinelli & Co.View Details.

Martinelli's operates two juice processing and bottling facilities in Watsonville. The orignal facility is a 60,000 sq. ft. single-story highbay plant originally built in 1885. The main facility is a 390,000 sq. ft. single-story highbay building originally built in 1968 by Green Giant Foods as a vegetable processing plant. Together, these two facilities process 100,000 gallons of apple juice each day.

Through a combination of capital investments and $30,000 in rebates from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), S. Martinelli & Co cut its annual electricity use 13 percent in 2005, compared to 2004, including an estimated reduction of 40 kilowatts in peak demand. Retrofits to highbay lighting, installation of an EMS, and upgrades to two compressed air systems alone save more than 700,000 kilowatt-hours annually, reducing utility costs by about $86,000.


Corporate Philosophy

Vineyard 29 in Napa Valley. Photo courtesy of Vineyard 29.View Details.

At Martinelli's, key company leaders, like fourth generation Vice President John Martinelli, make a priority of sustainable practices and environmentally sensitive production. Energy efficiency plays a large role in Martinelli's sustainable practices, as well as impacting bottom-line results - with looming energy costs of 7 to 8 percent of operating expenditures, the company continually analyzes how much electricity and natural gas it takes to produce a gallon of apple juice.

According to Greg Galvin, Martinelli's Maintenance Supervisor who spearheads energy efficiency efforts, the company has realized that, "Energy is no longer a facet to be ignored in budgeting for the cost of goods. The most viable tool the (utility) consumer has at their disposal is demand-side management." As a result the company has kept its energy cost from increasing, even though the cost of energy has gone up

As an extension of its corporate "green" philosophy, Martinelli's is currently considering a photovoltaic system on the main facility that will supply 70 percent of the power demand, and is working to achieve a Green Business Certification for its water conservation, energy efficiency, pollution control and employee education programs.


Lighting
Martinelli's made four lighting upgrades in just one year, retrofitting highbay fixtures with T8 fluorescent lamps and electronic ballasts, and installed additional skylights that help minimize the need for electric light, and installing motion sensors that automatically turn-off lights in unoccupied areas like storage rooms, copy rooms, and hallways. Work was subsidized and assisted by programs from Ecology Action and PG&E.

Not only is the new lighting significantly more energy efficient, it also has resulted in a better indoor environment. Greg Galvin explains that, "new technology lighting makes the work environment better and brighter and requires less maintenance."


Energy Management System
S. Martinelli's has already installed an energy management system (EMS) at one facility. Work is underway to install another system at the remaining facility. The EMS is used to monitor energy savings, energy use, and to assist with peak load curtailments.


Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a vital component in the Martinelli production system. Refrigeration keeps apples fresh upon delivery, after which the fruit is moved and pressed. Once pressed, the juice is held fresh in holding tanks that require additional cooling for up to 18 hours before filtration. With expertise in system energy audits, Galvin quickly went after what he determined was the "low hanging" fruit when he began his tenure in 2004. One early measure was repair of ammonia pipes used for refrigeration, which achieved immediate energy savings.


Steam Distribution System
Steam is used widely throughout both facilities, and is the primary source of process heat for pasteurization. Martinelli's insulated nearly all steam lines (none were running through refrigerated areas) so that the system's thermal energy could be better conserved. Besides saving energy from operating the steam system, this measure reduces the amount of heat inadvertently released to interior spaces.


Compressed Air System

Indoor offices with daylighting. Photo courtesy of Fetzer Vineyard.View Details.

Once delivered to the bottling line, Martinelli's juice is pasteurized, cooled, labeled and ready for sale. The entire process - including filling and bottling machines, filters and tanks, and case packaging with positioning devices, stop gates and motorized valves -- relies on a large compressed air system as well as over a hundred motors.

Realizing the potential for energy leaks along this entire system, Martinelli's initiated a compressed air audit and consequently upgraded the compressed air systems at both facilities. Upgrades included an oil-free air compressor with flow control, a compressed air pipe loop, and EPACT motors, which deliver an automatic two to three percent increase in energy efficiency. In addition to being more energy efficient, the upgraded air systems are also cleaner and quieter. The compressed air upgrade resulted in less leaks and real time cycling according to plant pressure.

Not only did the juice company obtain a $24,000 rebate for the compressed air system upgrades and replacement motors, but Martinelli's has also reduced its use of the system by 13 percent, which will continue to reward the company with lower energy costs year after year.


Advanced Metering and Demand Response
Processing perishable items like fruit juices often doesn't lend itself to participation in demand response programs, since fresh juice can only be stored for 24 hours. Power interruptions have the potential to spoil thousands of gallons of juice. However, John Martinelli, committed to demand response as part of the company's energy policy.

Photo courtesy of Fetzer Vineyard.View Details.

Since Martinelli's creates "press and bottle" schedules a day ahead of time, participating in PG&E's Emergency Demand Response Program (EDRP) was relatively simple. With this voluntary, day ahead bidding process, Martinelli's was able to participate in several events lasting two to three hours at a time. In these cases, workers were simply tasked to other important functions - ranging from machine maintenance to cleaning - while operations were halted or slowed to save energy. In each case, the company shaved as much as 50 kilowatts of demand.

In order to manage peak shaving and shifting of energy loads, Martinelli's brought in Applied Power Technologies (APT). APT installed whole-facility meters in one building that provides real-time energy use data on peak demand, total consumption, power quality, and outages, if any. Martinelli's staff can access this data on a computer 24-hours a day, 7-days a week via a dedicated Ethernet connection. This data acts as a "shadow" bill for electricity and natural gas, basically, a second set of cost-controls to verify utility bills. With increasing monthly utility costs, even small errors can quickly add up to big losses.

Since utilities can only provide next-day data, the advanced meters allow Galvin to ensure that the company reaches its peak demand reduction goals when participating in the EDRP.

The advanced meters help turn a fixed-cost - energy use - into a variable cost by providing comprehensive data that can track performance and improve forecasting accuracy. Martinelli's is in the process of incorporating process controls into the metering and EMS systems, to further improve data collection and system optimization.


Continuing Education
"One of my goals is to keep energy costs under control by educating and monitoring," said Galvin. During 2001-2005, Galvin gave several presentations to employees and other business representatives regarding conservation, energy management, recycling, and good manufacturing processes. At Martinelli's Galvin trained employees to look and listen for air leaks and to use brooms to clean instead of compressed air and water whenever possible, and to turn off lights when not in use. Many employees have taken the information home to their own families and had success in lowering their own utility bills.


Water Efficiency and Conservation
S. Martinelli is a participant in the Monterey County Green Business Program and is working to become certified as a green business through its water conservation efforts. To address water use efficiency and water conservation, the company installed low-flow water nozzles and water saving faucets.